Boulder transportation official: Cyclists should have to dismount at crosswalks

Cycling community shows mixed reactions

Here's a look at how Boulder and Colorado now handle bikes in crosswalks, where drivers must yield the right-of-way.

STATE LAW

Cyclists have all the rights and duties that apply to pedestrians in crosswalks.

Cyclists may not suddenly leave a curb and enter the path of a moving vehicle.

Cyclists must yield the right-of-way to any pedestrians in a crosswalk and give them an audible signal before passing.

Local ordinances can be set requiring cyclists to dismount before entering a crosswalk.

BOULDER LAW

Cyclists have the same rights and responsibilities as pedestrians in crosswalks, so long as they approach and enter the roadway at a speed no greater than an ordinary walking pace.

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Accidents involving vehicles and bicycles by year

2009 -- 167

2010, through Tuesday -- 17

Source: Boulder Police Department

Cyclists who dart across crosswalks are creating a danger to themselves and drivers and should instead have to dismount to cross the street, according to a Boulder transportation official.

Ryan Ognibene walks his bike as he crosses with fellow University of Colorado student Andrea Soden, left at the crosswalk at 13th Street and Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder on Tuesday afternoon. The two are affiliated with the CU Cycling team and are both aware of the dangers and conflicts between cyclists motorist in town. They both thought the idea impractical of the idea to require cyclists to dismount at crosswalks. (Paul Aiken)

David Driscoll, a member of the Boulder Transportation Advisory Board, which makes recommendations to the City Council, has suggested that the city consider changing the municipal law that allows cyclists to ride across crosswalks so long as they do it at the pace of a pedestrian.

Driscoll, an avid cyclist, said he always dismounts at crosswalks as a matter of personal safety. He thinks other riders should, too.

"It is lawful in Boulder to ride a bicycle across a crosswalk; I have a concern about that," Driscoll said. "The concern is with the cyclist who darts out quickly into the crosswalk, assuming that he or she will be seen by approaching motorists."

State law allows cyclists to ride across crosswalks. But while that law says cyclists and pedestrians can't suddenly leave the curb in front of oncoming vehicles, Boulder's code goes further.

Boulder's "bicycle in crosswalks" ordinance, adopted in 1989, states that riders have the same rights and responsibilities as pedestrians -- but cyclists must approach and enter the roadway "at a speed no greater than an ordinary walk so that other drivers may anticipate the necessity to yield when required."

The Transportation Advisory Board doesn't have the authority to make changes to the city code, but Driscoll said he hopes the City Council will consider the issue.

"We know that many of the accidents that occur at these crosswalks involve cyclists, and I worry about the safety of cyclists and I worry about whether it's reasonable to expect motorists to always see cyclists in time to stop," he said. "I'd like to have (the advisory board), the staff and council take a closer look at the safety issues here and decide whether it's sound policy to allow cyclists to cross in that manner."

Creating 'lawlessness'

Marni Ratzel, a bicycle and pedestrian transportation planner for Go Boulder, the city agency that promotes alternative transportation, said her office is beginning to study the causes of bicycle accidents in an effort to make riding safer overall.

There's no good picture of how many cyclists are "blazing through" crosswalks, she said, so it's difficult to know whether changing the law is the best approach to managing dangerous riders.

She said a central question in the debate about changing the crosswalk law would be whether the city would be "creating a law that will just create lawlessness" by trying to enforce rules that few might follow.

Dan Gelinne, a project coordinator with the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center at the Highway Safety Research Center, located at the University of North Carolina, said there is no research that shows one method of using crosswalks is any safer for cyclists than the other.

In general, he said, local conditions such as the volume of cyclists and the number of crosswalks should dictate the rules. But when there is a crosswalk with a lot of pedestrians or cyclists moving at the same time, Gelinne said the best practice would probably be for cyclists to walk their bikes.

"When you have such a high volume of pedestrians all crossing at once ... if a cyclist dismounts it could generally reduce the number of collisions," he said.

A 'very challenging' proposition

The idea of making cyclists act more like pedestrians in crosswalks was met with mixed reactions from the cycling community Tuesday.

Dan Grunig, executive director of Bicycle Colorado, the state's largest nonprofit cycling advocacy group, said state law used to require riders to dismount at crosswalks.

He said the law was changed in 2005 because some riders hit by cars in crosswalks were being partially blamed for the accidents when they didn't dismount as required. That, Grunig said, was unfair to riders who otherwise were in a protected zone.

He said for Boulder to go back to that model would be creating a law "where the victim gets blamed."

"I think it is safe to ride a bike through a crosswalk," Grunig said.

Spense Havlick, a member of the Transportation Advisory Board, said it would be impractical to expect all riders to dismount at crosswalks.

"If we could get everybody to do it, it would be delightful," he said. "But the practical reality of it, I think, is very challenging."

He said skateboarders and pedestrians also create hazards by not paying attention at crosswalks, especially near the University of Colorado.

"They just proceed across the street, hoping the cars will stop for them," he said.

He said a better solution is to do away with some of the most heavily used crosswalks and replace them with underpasses -- though he admits that's an especially pricey option.

Charlie Henderson, president of the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club, said he worries that the added inconvenience of a required dismount at crosswalks could force people off of paths and into the streets.

"That would be awful," he said. "It would take the incentive off of riding, and you would put people on the street immediately."

Nick Barth, a student at Naropa University, said a dismount law would be "inconvenient."

'It's scary out there'

Eric Petit, who was cycling in Boulder on Tuesday during a visit from Texas, said he thinks crosswalks everywhere could be safer if riders were required to dismount.

And Jim Miers, chairman of the safety committee of the Boulder Cycling Club, agreed.

"If you're riding, there's just too great a temptation to just cruise across," he said.

Miers said that, for as many drivers who are inattentive about cyclists, there are just as many cyclists who ride dangerously through intersections, stop signs and crosswalks.

"It's easy for a cyclist to slip into a zone of immunity," he said. Educating both groups, he suggested, could go a long way toward making crosswalks safer.

"I think it's scary out there in the city of Boulder, and anything they can do" to make it equally safer for riders and drivers would be welcome.

Jordan Rothstein, a junior at the University of Colorado, waves to get a car to stop as he crosses Broadway near the CU campus Tuesday morning. While a city transportation official wants bicyclists to dismount at crosswalks, some say stricter rules should apply to skateboarders, too.
(
Stephen Swofford
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